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Home > Archive > Jul 5, 2007

A Family ‘Racquet’
By Stephen Vincent
For the second year, Matthew and Jonathan Morgan met in the championship match of the Utah Summer Games 12-and-under competition.
While they were playing, their parents, Earl and Marivic Morgan, were playing in their own championship match in the mixed doubles competition on the court adjacent to where their sons were playing.
They hurried and won the gold in their event and watched their sons finish playing.
For Marivic, it was more relaxing to have her boys playing each other rather than playing against someone else.
“There's so much pressure when your boys play against other players,” she said. “But we're rooting for both of them in the finals. We root for him when he makes a good shot, and then we root for him (their other son) for when he makes a good shot.”
This year, it was 8-year-old Matthew's turn to win the gold after Jonathan, 10, won it last year. The two boys play doubles together, although that event wasn't offered for boys their age in the Summer Games.
The boys practice together three or four times a week. And they both enjoy the game. Matthew said he enjoys trying to put spin on the ball, and Jonathan said he likes tennis because it makes him run, and he gets to meet new people. The kids usually play at Green Valley, while Earl plays with a group at Tonaquint.
The Morgans' oldest son, Carlos, has played singles for Snow Canyon for three years, playing in either No. 1 or No. 2 singles. He will be a senior for the Warriors next year.
The family gets together a few times each week to hit balls. In fact, it was when the boys began playing that Marivic picked up the sport again. She has been playing for six years, and Earl hasn't been playing that much longer. The boys have been playing about three years.
Despite being fairly new to the sport, the family has embraced the game. 
“Tennis is a good sports for the family because it's not too expensive,” said Earl Morgan. “You can buy a racket that will last a while, and the balls are cheap. And we can go to a tournament, and all of us can play and participate.”
The family has taken trips to play in tennis tournaments, including one trip in which they piled into the family RV and drove up to Canada and played five tournaments along the way in Montana, Wyoming and Canada.  
The Utah Summer Games, though, has become a regular event for the Morgan family.
The Summer Games’ mixed doubles competition is a rated competition, which means instead of being divided into age groups, pairings are ranked by skill level. That meant Earl and Marivic ended up playing and beating a number of college kids.
“It's nice to be able to beat the younger kids,” Earl said.
In five Summer Games, Earl has won five golds and seven silvers; each member of the family has won at least one gold in the Summer Games.
In a few years, the boys will be approaching a critical age in tennis.
“At 13, kids have to make a progression,” said Earl Morgan. “Or at 15, there will be kids who beat them.”
Earl Morgan said that has to do with tennis players in places like Las Vegas and Park City, who practice for eight hours a day year round. He doesn't think that kids need to play that much tennis to succeed. Rather, he thinks kids need to play four times a week for 10 months a year to stay on top of their game.
“If you don't do that, kids you beat last year will beat you next year,” Morgan said.

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